Sīsyphus: Rēx Improbus

Sīsyphus, Rēx Improbus (Sisyphus, the Naughty King) is a sheltered-vocabulary Latin novella published by Peter Sipes in 2020. It tells the story of Sisyphus, the king of Corinth who tried to cheat death and was punished by being forced to roll a stone up a hill for eternity. It is notable for telling a classic myth story in a style that uses a somewhat more complex sentence structure than comparable stories (e.g. Olimpi’s Familia Mala series). It also has few glosses and no illustrations.

Available as a free download from Scribd, or from Amazon.

Reading level

The intended level is not given in the author’s published material.  As of this writing, it is not rated by Comprehensible Antiquity.

Diverse & Multicultural Identities

For information about how representation of multicultural and diverse identities is analyzed in LNDb, see here.

Parallel cultures

No depictions identified.

Gender

Features one cis male main character (Sisyphus). Features no cis female main characters or transgender main characters.

Sexual identity

Features a depiction of heterosexual identity: Sisyphus is married to a woman, Merope.

SES/class

No depictions identified.

Religion

No depictions identified.

Disability

No depictions identified.

Language Statistics

Vocabulary

Word counts may differ from the author's advertised figures. See here for information about how words are counted in LNDb.

Word List

A complete word list for Sīsyphus, Rēx Improbus can be found here.

Glosses

This novella contains glosses in the form of footnotes with English translations.

Of the 167 unique words (not counting proper nouns) used in the text, 13 of them (7.8%) are glossed at their first appearance in the text. Of the 1464 total words in the text, 28 of them (1.9%) are glossed.

Glossary

This novella contains a Latin-English glossary, with words listed by headword only. The glossary is complete.

Syntax

The ratio of compound sentences indicates what proportion of the total sentences are compound sentences, on average. A compound sentence is defined as a sentence with multiple T-units.
The ratio of complex sentences indicates what proportion of the total sentences are complex sentences, on average. A complex sentence is defined as a sentence with one or more subordinate clauses or verb phrases.

See here for more information.

Summary

The graph above shows the vocabulary and syntax of the novella relative to the other novellas studied. A higher position on the graph means that this novella scores higher than average in this criterion. These scores are not necessarily tied to reading level; this graph is descriptive of the novella's language rather than predictive of its difficulty.

Genre & Sources

This novella is in the genre of mythological (Classical).

It is an adaptation of the story of Sisyphus, well known in antiquity. The earliest source of the specific story of him cheating death is from Pherecydes (Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum, vol. 1, no. 78).

CONTAINS SPOILERS

Sisyphus is a king who is about to die. His wife, Merope, comes up with a plan to cheat death: when he dies, she does not bury his body or hold a funeral. When Sisyphus arrives at the River Styx leading to the underworld, he explains to Charon that he does not have the coin needed to cross, because his wife did not follow the funeral custom of putting the coin in his mouth. Sisyphus is taken to Pluto and explains that he needs to return to the world of the living to convince his wife to give him a proper burial. Pluto grants this request, and Sisyphus returns to his wife, but they do not have a funeral and Sisyphus does not return to the underworld. Thus, they succeed in cheating death. Pluto is angry that he has been tricked and sends Thanatos (Death) to retrieve Sisyphus in chains. However, Sisyphus tricks Thanatos into putting the chains on himself. Because Death himself is in chains, nobody can die, and Jupiter and Pluto are both mad at Sisyphus, and he is eventually sent back to the underworld. Sisyphus is condemned to an eternal punishment of pushing a rock up a hill which rolls down again every time he reaches the top.

First 100 Words

Underlined words are glossed in the text.

Corinthus erat (et est) oppidum in Graeciā et rēx ibi erat Sīsyphus, quī erat improbus sed callidus. Sīsyphus erat aeger—valdē aeger. moritūrus erat, sed vītam amābat. morī enim nōlēbat, quia vītam valdē amābat.
Sīsyphus uxōrem, Meropēn, habēbat, quae etiam erat improba sed callidā. Sīsyphus Meropēn amābat, et Meropē Sīsyphum amābat. Meropē Sīsyphum morī nōlēbat, quia Meropē est immortālis. Meropē nōn moritūra erat. sī Sīsyphus morerētur, Meropē esset trīstis.
“ō Sīsyphe,” inquit Meropē, “tē morī nōlō.”
“ego,” inquit Sīsyphus, “ morī nōlō, sed aeger sum. moritūrus sum. auxilium habēre volō. quis mihi auxilium dabit?”
“tibi,” inquit Meropē, “auxilium dabō, quia tē amō.” ...

Studies show that a reader should understand 98% of the words in a text in order to have a good chance of comprehending it. One rule of thumb is to read the first hundred words and count the number of unfamiliar words. If there are two or fewer unfamiliar words, it can be read without much difficulty. Three to five unfamiliar words is possible to read, but may be difficult. If there are six or more unfamiliar words, the text may be too difficult.

Supplementary Materials

If you have resources for Sīsyphus: Rēx Improbus and would like to share them on LNDb, please contact me.

Presentation

Illustrations?	no
Illustrator	N/A
Macrons?	yes
Font	Times New Roman, 16 pt
Pages of story	32
Total pages	50
Chapters	12

Key Information

Publication date	April 3, 2020
Publisher	Pluteo Pleno
ISBN	193784708X
ISBN-13	978-1937847081